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Rodney hunt knows about building a business with government contracts. The company he started 14 years ago, RS Information Systems, is now the nation's 35th largest government contractor of technology services, with revenue of nearly $370 million in 2005.

Hunt is spreading the wealth: RSIS operates its own Small Business Registry, through which small and minority-owned businesses can learn about, and partner with RSIS on, government contracts.

"We bring companies together to become a one-stop shop [for the government]," says Hunt. "The synergies make sense [when going] after larger opportunities." In the past three years, Hunt estimates his McLean, Virginia, company has trained 1,000 small-business representatives to compete for federal contracts. Recently, RSIS helped a company bid on a $1 billion contract from the Depart-ment of Energy. On this and other contracts, RSIS has beaten out industry giants.